PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Building a parking garage on state-owned land in Providence to serve state workers, visitors to the Garrahy Judicial Complex and, ultimately, the people expected to work and live on land opened...

Paul Grimaldi Journal Staff Writer paulegrimaldi

PROVIDENCE — Building a parking garage on state-owned land in Providence to serve state workers, visitors to the Garrahy Judicial Complex and, ultimately, the people expected to work and live on land opened up downtown by moving Route 195 could cost an estimated $43 million — before interest payments, according to a study reviewed Friday morning by a legislative commission.

The legislative commission was formed in 2013 to study the feasibility of building a garage adjacent to the Dorrance Street court complex.

The commission is co-chaired by Sen. Josh Miller and Rep. Chris Blazejewski. Commissioners are revisiting an idea first proposed at least 15 years ago. The idea was dropped because the demand for parking failed to justify the building cost.

That situation may have changed over the years, Miller and other commissioners point out.

Previous studies speculated that Brown University and RISD both would move programs and students into downtown, that Johnson & Wales University would expand, that the Providence Performing Arts Center event schedule would grow, that the state would relocate Route 195 and that people would begin living downtown.

“A lot of what was speculated … now exists,” Miller said.

Colin Kane, who holds the dual role of commission member as well as chairman of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, on Friday presented scenarios for a seven-level garage with 1,250 parking spaces and room for ground-floor shops.

His presentation showed some issues remain unresolved.

Among those: whether it would save or cost the state money to move employee parking into a new garage, how soon construction on the Route 195 land would generate new parking demand, who would pay for the garage, how it would be financed and the key one — whether it would pay for itself.

Currently, the court has 210 onsite parking spaces between Friendship and Clifford Streets. However, the state commits to providing parking for 517 employees who work in the court — judges, sheriffs, clerks, probation officers and prosecutors among them.

To accommodate them, the state court pays $384,000 annually for 320 off-site parking spaces. In some cases, the state pays itself for those spots, for instance, at the Rhode Island Convention Center garage.

The court system also pays to shuttle jurors from its off-site lots to the Garrahy complex, said J. Joseph Baxter, state court administrator.

Besides the parking for court employees, the state contracts for 728 parking spaces downtown, in all, noted Richard Licht, head of the state’s Department of Administration and Governor Chafee’s chief aide — at a cost of $350,000 annually. Those spaces include 125 in the convention center.

Moving those vehicles wouldn’t necessarily save Rhode Island taxpayers all the money spent on downtown parking, Licht noted, as it would simply shift which state account receives the money.

“The reason to build this is not for public employee parking,” Licht said. “You do this because it’s necessary to have parking for new developments.”

At one linear mile, the narrow strip of former highway land cannot accommodate the parking needs of the businesses and institutions envisioned as future tenants of the land he’s charged with overseeing, Kane said at previous commission meetings. Between 1,200 and 1,500 parking spaces may be needed just to support the buildings envisioned for the four district land parcels closest to the Garrahy complex.

Garages are easy to build, but expensive — $30,000 to $35,000 per space.

As a downtown business owner, Miller said, he sees “an upside to having fewer contracted spaces in the convention center” and elsewhere downtown, as it would free spaces for downtown visitors.

That potential benefit aside, revenue from use of a garage by the public is difficult to determine, Licht said.

Sen. Dawson T. Hodgson suggested the state should put off building a garage until there are “one or two” commitments to build on the Route 195 land.

“The goal here is to minimize the ‘what-ifs,’” Hodgson said. “I’m having a hard time getting over that the first thing we’re building in the ‘Link’ is a parking garage.”

(‘Link’ is the name Kane’s commission has given to the land it oversees.)

Other commissioners said those commitments would be more likely to come with a parking garage in place.

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